It has been confirmed that board members of the National Asset Management Agency are to receive higher fees for their work than originally planned.

Chairman Frank Daly will receive €170,000 this year, up 70% from €100,000.

The other six members of the board will receive a 32% increase in their fees, up from €38,000 to €50,000.

The information is contained in a reply from the Minister for Finance to a parliamentary question asked by Sinn Féin Finance spokesman Arthur Morgan.

‘They should receive the remuneration that was indicated originally. The Government cannot justify pay cuts for some people but incredible an 70% pay increases for others,’ Mr Morgan said.

The board was announced on 22 December last year.

A spokesman for the Department of Finance said it had been decided to increase the fees for the first year of the existence of NAMA because the volume of work to be done would be higher than in subsequent years.

He said Mr Daly would be expected to be available on a full-time basis, while the chairman of NAMA’s Credit Committee would have to be available for three to four days a week.

The spokesman also claimed that the fees being paid were less than those paid to directors of a bank of an equivalent size.

He said the fees would be reviewed again at the end of the first year.

A spokesman for NAMA said it had no comment to make on the fees paid to its directors.

The spokesman said the board has met four times since January.

He said the credit committee meets every week for half a day, while other committees are also meeting weekly.